Study Backs Lauderdale Beach Convention Center

FORT LAUDERDALE — A city-hired consultant has determined that Fort Lauderdale beach is the only place in Broward County with enough hotel rooms to support a major convention center.

The 21-page preliminary report, prepared by Hammer Siler George Associates, was requested by the City Commission as part of an overall study by Sasaki Associates Inc. on revitalizing the aging central beach district.

Commissioners will review the convention center findings Tuesday. The information will be forwardedto the Broward Tourist Development Council, which is studying several possible convention center sites.

The Hammer Siler George study stops short of recommending the beach as a convention center site. It does not address whether there is room on the beach to build a 150,000-square-foot convention center, which the firm said would require a 375,000-square foot site.

A completed study on the convention center will be available in about six weeks.

A previous study done by Touche Ross & Co. concluded that between 2,000 and 4,000 hotel rooms would be needed in the immediate vicinity of a convention center.

``Only the Fort Lauderdale beach area of Broward County can come close to accommodating this requirement,`` according to the Hammer Siler George report.

The firm said there are 2,826 hotel rooms on the beach between Sunrise Boulevard and Holiday Drive.

``Most of these rooms are first class to luxury,`` the report said.

There are more than 4,500 hotel rooms in an area between Galt Ocean Mile and Southeast 17th Street, all within a five-minute drive of the central beach area near East Las Olas Boulevard, the report says.

The report also says that, based on figures in the Touche Ross study, a beach convention center would be an economic boost to the suffering East Las Olas Boulevard shopping district.

Touche Ross found that convention-goers would spend about $17 million a year on retail goods, much of which would go to the Las Olas shops and the Galleria mall, Hammer Siler George said.

Conventioneers also would supply enough demand for additional restaurants and nightclubs on the beach as well as fill beach hotel rooms.